.ghoti.

I haven't seen the official Spring schedule yet. If spring break happens at the right time, I'll be there. If not, I'd have to turn in a death certificate to get that many days off in the middle of a semester. Got my fingers crossed. Cheers, GK

In no particular order: Sam Adams Black Lager Sam Adams Cream Stout Boulevard Pale Ale Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat Guiness Stout Summit Pale Ale Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Gotta agree with the "skunk" verdict on Corona and Heineken, although different hop varieties have different flavors, some toward the skunky side. I've had some Boulevard around for months and it doesn't get skunked. Corona starts out that way. I've tried it in Mexico. Still tastes nasty, even when it's fresh. I wish more brewers did the "born on" thing. If it says light or lite on the label, it ain't beer. Don't know what it is, I just know what it isn't. Captain Cali has it dead on. Quality, not quantity. And, the fresher the better.

Nifty idea for a thread. I've been around a bit the last few years. I'm from Illinois. Been fishing in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, New York, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Ontario, and a few others that I won't comment on because they were either short trips or only a single time. I've gotta say Minnesota has been the best for all around fishing success. Largemouth, smallmouth, muskie, walleye, crappie, and my all time favorite fish, pike. If you like bass fishing, you've gotta love pike fishing. The other place that I have to metion is Cancun. Been going there almost every January for about ten years. I love to fish the lagoon. Cancun is an island, shaped like a 7, off the tip of the Yucatan peninsula. The area between the island and the mainland is the lagoon. It averages 5 - 6 feet deep, and covers about 25 square miles, surronded by mangroves. Lots of rock, coral and vegetation to fish. Had a great day every trip except one. I've caught bonefish, tarpon, snook, snapper, pompano, grouper and barracuda. Mostly on topwater baits on light spinning tackle. Light for saltwater that is. Barracuda are awesome when they hit a super spook. They are like a big pike on steroids. To get back on track, I've never fished Florida, Texas or California, the acknowledged big bass states. ( sorry if I left anybody out ). These are on my list. I will get around to them, sometime. For bass fishing, Minnesota has been the best to me, with Missouri running a close second. I'm going to agree that it's hard to pick a state when there are so many good lakes, all over the map.

What if someone was pulling big bass out of one body of water to stock another? Would that be OK? If you're planning on doing this, you may want to check your local regulations. This is not OK (illegal) in many places. This is a practice best left to the professional fisheries management people. There are many documented cases of fisheries being seriously damaged, or ruined, by well-meaning anglers upsetting the ecological balance of small waters by introducing a new species to the mix. Better to leave well enough alone, if you don't know what you're doing, and, if you're not a marine biologist, you don't know what you're doing. H'mm, I've just re-read this, and it sounds a bit on the harsh side. I don't intend to offend anybody with this. It's just that I got a good reaming from a game warden a few years ago, for doing exactly that. He got right in my face. I knew what he'd had for lunch. Hell, I knew what he had for breakfast. The lesson stuck. Sorry for the rant. Hope I didn't tick anybody off. Anyway, several have made the real point. Habitat protection and enviromental issues are what we really need to be concerned about. I'm 54, and there is a heck of lot less water to fish now than there was when I was 20. Let your local congressman know what you think. And, if you don't vote, you can't *****. Good luck, GK

The type of water I fish is WET medium pond

RW is absolutely correct. Most 5lb bass are about 3 pounds. I bought a Rapala Lok-N-Weigh a couple of years ago. I've caught a lot few five pounders since then. A LOT FEWER! Everybody over-etimates the weights of their fish. Everybody. I weighed a friend of mine's 5 pounder one day at 3.5 pounds. His response? My scale is "screwed up". Couldn't convince him otherwise. Didn't try very hard. He's a good friend. "Nuff said. I did check the scale by weighing a one gallon milk jug full of water. It weighed in at 8 1/4 pounds. The scale is in 1/4 pound increments. Close enough for government work. If you're going to report that you've just caught a ten pounder, better get yourself a decent scale. Otherwise you're just kidding yourself, and "bs"ing the rest of us. Good luck all, GK

Went to my first, last year in St Louis. Jimmy Houston, Larry Nixon, Gary Klein, Randy Howell, Davy Hite and George Cochran. Very informative. Nice guys. I'll go again.

Call it "Pavlov's Bass". But, how can tell when it's drooling?

Love the noodle rods. I use a 3wt for bluegill, a 5wt with a sink-tip line for crappie, a 6wt and an 8wt for bass. The 5 and 6 I use for the rare trout trip. tboydva is right, the fly rod can often save the day. It's a presentation bass rarely see around here. I've done the best on bass with a bunny strip. I catch a lot more bass on one of those than on the poppers or floating bugs. Blue is good, black is better, but sometimes chartreuse is the ticket. Once the hide gets soaked, the bunny strip has an action you have to see. Twitched slowly, it will wave and wiggle around one to two feet deep. It will move about sitting still. Bass will crush it. I throw these and the bigger bugs on a 9' 8wt rod. I need the heavier line weight to cast these flies and get them to turn over and land right. Can't seem to get it done with the lighter rods. I've been using some of the largest bunnies on a spinning rod with a split shot rig. Kind of like a mini carolina rig. This is my ultimate finesse rig. I've caught several over 4 pounds and one right at 6 with the rabbit strip fly. I use the 8'6" 6wt for for bass also, throwing smaller bugs, big streamers, like a Clouser or Bouface, big nymphs, and grasshopper patterns. A two pound bass on a 6wt is a good battle. A three pounder is the biggest I've caught on this rig. This is the best rig I have for numbers. I've caught a ton of 1-2 pounders on the big streamers and hoppers. I get a lot of dinks on this rig too. A ten incher on this rod is a lot more fun than it would be on a MH baitcaster. The 8' 5wt with the sinking line is for crappie, with smaller nymphs and streamers. Crappie are usually deeper than I can fish with a floating line. I get a bass every now and then on this rig, but it's not a high percentage thing. I get out the 3wt when I want some fish for the skillet. Bluegill on a 3wt is about as much fun as you can have with your pants on. I use ants and small nymphs mostly. I've found that the more I move these flies, the smaller the fish get. I catch the largest bluegill by letting the fly sink with no movement at all. Every now and then you can get good bluegill action on the dry fly. When they want this, I have the best success with the brightest color dries I have. This is an absolute hoot. Just like topwater bassin' on a small scale. About the gear, I don't own any high end fly rods or reels. When I add each one up, rod, reel, backing, line and leader, all were under $200. Temple Forks Outfitters make a great rod for under 100. That's my 3wt and 5wt. The 6wt is an el cheapo Daiwa I got on sale for $30. All three have BPS Hobb's Creek model large arbor reels. They're about $40 each. The 8wt is a Reddington rod and reel Cabela's had on clearance a couple of years ago for around $100. Would I like to have a Sage or a Winston? You bet. Will I be buying one anytime soon? Probably not. I did get high end lines for all my outfits. A good fly line will cost you $50 or so. If you clean it every trip, it will last for years. I have a Scientific Anglers Mastery series line on my 6wt thats been on there for at least 6 years. The 5wt even longer. Somebody asked about leaders. I used to tie my own. What a pain in the membrane. I went to tapered one-piece leaders a long time ago. I've now switched all of mine out for braided leaders. These are the best, in my opinion. These will last for years also. To see one go to feather-craft.com and look up furled leaders. They are not cheap, 13-15 bucks each, but are worth every penny. They have a tiny metal ring on the end for tying on your tippet. I tie on about 3' and snip it off and tie on a new piece when it gets tp be less than 2'. These leaders come with a loop on the other end, so if you get a fly line with a loop, rigging is about as easy as it can be. Last comment. Casting. It does take practice, but no more than a baitcaster. It's just an entirely different motion. If you are new to this, don't use any wrist. It's all in the shoulder and elbow. The best advice I ever got about improving my fly casting is this. Go out in the back yard, strip off about 30' of line, with leader attached, but no fly, and try to kepp it in the air as you cast back and forth. Here's the key. Keep the rod between 10:00 and 2:00. If you hear a whip crack, you've started your stroke in the opposite direction too soon. With a little practice, you can feel when to change directions. Until you get the feel, watch the line. This sounds and looks goofy, but it will help. Also, you don't really need to double haul cast for bass. Sure, it's cool to see somebody shoot a hundred feet of line, and we all have had to do it now and then, but you can't set the hook on a bass at that range. At least I can't seem to. Most of my casts are 40' or less. The longer I go, the fewer fish I land. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, probably am, but hooksets at the end of a long cast with all that line out and a noodle rod just don't get "er done for me. One more thing. Yeah, I know, I said that already. I don't tie my own flies. My brother does, and he's been on me to start, and I will sometime. But until then, I've been buying flies at flyshack.com. They have the best prices and quickest service I've found. One thing I like about them is free shipping on orders over $25. Another is, if they don't have it in stock, ready to ship, it's not listed on the page to buy. With that in mind, I have to check back on a regular basis to see what bass flies they have. Sometimes they'll have four pages of bass flies and occassionally only one page. One of those big deerhair bass bugs that will cost you anywhere from $4 - $6 most places will be at the flyshack for $1.50. Big streamers for a buck, and nymphs for 75 cents. I've bought a lot of flies from them over the last couple of years, and have never been disappointed. Check it out. Good luck everybody, GK

I've been getting In-Fisherman for for at least 20 years. It's still the best in my opinion. Been getting Bassin' for about ten years, and will keep doing so. I screwed up and subscribed to Bassmaster after about a five year layoff. A friend of mine told me that it was better than it used to be. BS. If anything, it's worse. I will not be renewing that one. It's not worth it for the two or three good articles per year, and I could care less about what some tournament "pro" is doing. What they call fishing bears only a superficial resemblance to what I call fishing.

Something dark for dingy or deep water and natural colors for shallow or clear water. If pressed to name a favorite, it would be a toss-up between black/blue and red shad. In my game plan, depth and presentation are much more important than color. Color is the last thing I tweak. Good luck, GK

Several years ago, when Skitter-pops first came out, I lost a nice bass to a lousy knot. It was my second cast with the brand new Skitter-pop. Line broke within seconds of the hookset and had the tell-tale curl on the end, letting me know that I had failed to tie a good knot. About 3 hours later I was back in the area, working a deep crank down a point, and caught a nice 3lber with a brand new Skitter-pop in it's jaw. Same color as the one I lost earlier. Was it mine? Who knows, I like to think so.

keep the rod tip as low as you can, pull off to one side to put some extra pressure in the fish to make it roll over, and, if that doesn't work, step on it's tail.

AT, it sounds like you're a versatile guy, who likes to expermiment. That's what this game is all about. Keep it up and let us know what's working for you. You want unconventional, try a carolina rigged buzzbait :-/

When I get desperate for a bite, I'll get out the 3wt fly rod and catch some gills for bait. I use the noodle rod for gill fishing when I want some fish for the table. In my waters, I've found that a small ant pattern will catch the biggest gills when I don't move the fly. I cast to a likely spot and just let it sink. I grease my leader so the ant sinks at about 1 foot in 10 seconds. The least movement will get the biggest gills. When I want bait for bass, I'll cast it out and strip it in. It seems the faster I retrieve the fly, the smaller the gills will be, most of the time. Check the regulations for your state to see if bluegill are ok to use as bait. In Illinois, it's legal as long as you've caught them yourself. I use a light weight c-rig with a 1/0 hook through the lower back of the gill. The gill will try to swim up if hooked through the lower part of the body near the back end. I'll gently cast it out and leave it set for at least 2 minutes, then move it a few feet and let it set again. The bait will last the longest if you don't keep casting. A 3" bluegill is just about the perfect size. I use about 3' of leader to allow the gill some movement. This works when nothing else will. If you don't have a fly rod, use an ultra light spinning rig, with a small fly and a casting bubble, or a small float. Works just as well, just not as much fun.By the way, if you try this in a river, better use some serious tackle. You may tangle with a big flathead using this rig.

Mustad Ultrabite is the product. I've been using it for a year, and have been experimenting. It does seem to make a positive difference. There may be some other products out there. I haven't really looked for any others. I've been stuffing a cotton ball in a tube, a couple of drops of the juice, and make repeated casts to the same area. It takes a while for the scent to become dispersed through the area. I'll add more to the tube after each dozen or so casts. The other way I've tried is soaking a rock and chucking it out into the middle of a small cove and then come bcak to it after 20-30 minutes. It's pretty amazing stuff. There have to be fish in the area. It doesn't seem to draw them in from any distance, but does seems to turn on any that are already there. If you try it, beware of the smell. It really stinks. My first try ended with the smell on my pants, thus in my car seats. My wife wouldn't get in my car for better than a month. This stuff smells nasty. I've ended up keeping the small bottle in a ziplock bag sealed inside a small tupperware container, it smells that bad! Good luck, GK

Excellent job, young man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're all with you. Good luck, GK

When I want to fish a worm, I grab a Power worm. I use BPS finesse binder bags for all my soft plastics, and I have one stuffed full of Power worms and craws. Nothing else in that one. I guess we know what I think.

In my neck of the woods, the ice never seems to get thick enough for me to be comfortable about going out on it. It does keep me from fishing though. So, I spend the winter ordering more rods, cleaning my reels, ordering more baits, organizing my tackle bags, ordering more reels, re-organizing my tackle bags, ordering more tackle bags so I have to then re-organizing my tackle, etc. Winter is a dangerous time for me. I'm glad when it's over so I can start fishing and stop buying stuff.

Here's mine. Keep in mind I spent a lot of time out on the road and usually took some tackle along for the down times. Illinois Indiana Kentucky Missouri Tennessee Arkansas Wisconsin Minnesota Michigan Iowa Ohio Colorado New York ? Does Ontario count?

Bought the blades here http://www.harpoonlure.com/VibratingJigBlades.html made my own from a selection of jigs and jigheads with different skirts and trailers some worked, some did not still experimenting will get some pic's posted soon

The two techniques on the bottom of my list are the caroliona rig and it's bass-akcwards cousin, the drop shot rig. I can catch fish on them, but, I find these two rigs to be totally boring to fish. I'll have to have exhausted all other possibilities before I use either of these.

#1 In-Fisherman, still the best, been a subscriber for at least 15 years, maybe longer #2 Inside Line, I just started a subscription ( three issues so far) and I'm impressed #3 Bassin I always get something from this one, been getting it for 7 or 8 years #4 Bassmaster I re-subscribed last year after a 5 or 6 year hiatus, and I will not be renewing.

Here, in the middle of Illinois, anything over 5 is worth talking about. An 8 is a giant.

5" red shad Senko, 5/0 EWG hook. 10# flouro line, any rod and reel I have.